Constitutional Dialogism and ‘One Country, Two Systems’: Common Law vs Chinese Law?
Time and date: 11am-12pm, Wednesday 23 August 2023
Location: Law School Board Room (W353), Level 3, Forgan Smith Building, The University of Queensland, St Lucia
Please join us for food and refreshments following the seminar.
Abstract
Under the ‘One Country, Two Systems’ (OCTS) framework, which will officially continue to operate after 2047, the Court of Final Appeal in Hong Kong has the final authority to interpret the Hong Kong Basic Law using a common law approach, while China’s political authority – the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPCSC) – has the authority to interpret it within China’s Party-state system. In support of the maintenance of Hong Kong’s common-law-based rule of law order, as intrinsically entailed by OCTS, and as distinct from the Chinese legal system, the presentation will explore the theory of constitutional dialogism considering both the common law practice in Hong Kong and the meaning of ‘One Country’ as informed by Chinese law.
About the speaker
Shucheng (Peter) Wang
City University of Hong Kong
Shucheng (Peter) Wang is an Associate Professor at City University of Hong Kong (CityU). His research interests include comparative public law, human rights, legal theory, law and religion, and international law, as well as Chinese law and society. He has authored four books – including, most recently, Law as an Instrument (New York and Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022) – and over fifty articles published in journals including Human Rights Quarterly (US), Modern China (US), Politics Religion & Ideology (UK), and Public Law Review (Australia), along with a number of prestigious Chinese law journals such as the Chinese Journal of Law [法学研究], among others. He once served as an expert witness for the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, as well as a leading examiner in constitutional law on the PCLL Conversion Examination of the Standing Committee on Legal Education and Training in Hong Kong. His research has been cited by the Justice of the Court of Appeal in the Supreme Court of Singapore, among others. His publications were also featured on the reading list of several interdisciplinary courses offered by universities in the UK, Germany, and Sweden, among others. In addition, he has been awarded various competitive research grants by the Hong Kong Research Grants Council in support of his interdisciplinary legal studies. He has acted as a peer reviewer for leading journals and publishers, including Health and Human Rights Journal (US), Modern China (US), and Cambridge University Press.
Prior to joining CityU, Wang began his academic career at the Peking University School of Government in 2009 after completing his PhD through the Fulbright Chinese PhD Dissertation Research Program at Renmin University in Beijing and Emory University in the US (US supervisor: Michael J. Perry). His dissertation, entitled “Presumption of Constitutionality”, investigates the relationship between the legislature and judiciary in the process of constitutional review from a comparative perspective. It was awarded the “National Outstanding PhD Dissertation Prize” by the Ministry of Education (Wang was the only recipient of this award in the field of law nationwide in 2011). In addition, he holds a Master of International Human Rights Law from the University of Oxford, where he was both a Clarendon Scholar and the first graduate of the program from Greater China.
In addition, Wang is an affiliated researcher of the Law and Religion in Asia Pacific program at the School of Law, University of Queensland in Australia. He has held various visiting appointments at Harvard Law School (US), State University of New York at Albany (US), National University of Singapore (Singapore), Seoul National University (South Korea), Academia Sinica (Taiwan), Waseda University (Japan), etc. Beyond his academic performance, he also specialises in Chinese calligraphy and has received many national calligraphy awards, particularly during his time as a law undergraduate. He held his own Chinese calligraphy exhibition in Wuhan City in 2003.